Good morning & Feeling sorry for yourself doesn't get the work done!

I tend to wax and wane philosophical in the morning.  It's the time of the day when my brain is most active.  This morning when I awoke, I was immediately struck by this thought: "I feel tired, why can't I be like one of those people who just hops out of bed and is ready for the day." 

Then I immediately thought of this old lesson that used to get screamed at us by Coachie at SJU basketball practice/conditioning/lifting/other forms of torture....That lesson was the following:  "Feeling sorry for yourself doesn't get the work done!"  While coachie was undeniably a crazy, crazy lady, she was right.  The minute one girl started feeling a little sorry for herself...tired...but had to keep going, the energy got zapped and the rest of us would start falling like flies.  Self- pity is contagious.  However, self pity is one of the stupidest human emotions because it truly does absolutely nothing but make things worse by causing you to fixate on your source of distress. 

The difference between me and those people that hop out of bed in the morning isn't that they just "feel great" and I should feel bad for myself because I'm "sleepy."  It's that they aren't feeling sorry for themselves.  They take the morning as it comes and roll with it. 

This got me thinking, self-pity is really a manifestation of your ego.  Your ego bruised by an expectation you had for how something would go or how you are supposed to feel or what someone else owes you, etc...

But...does feeling sorry for yourself change any of that? 

No. 

You can't change an outcome (usually).  You can change your expectations - (I would prefer not to - I'm an optimist.  I'd rather expect the best), or you can change your response to the expectation you set. 

So, I'd like to return to basketball, and the lessons I'm thankful I was introduced to between 4 lines drawn on a court where the stakes were lower than "real life."  Coachies was SO RIGHT.  Feeling sorry for yourself does NOTHING to change your current state and it CERTAINLY won't propel you through the suffer-fest she was imparting on you. 

So push those feelings out of your head and get on with it!  Sorry wont' get the work done!

Carpe diem,

J

ps.  does anyone have the desire to lay on that tree branch in the 3rd picture?  I want to climb that try every day I see it!